What would you do if I told you that I’ll give you a FREE ticket for an all-inclusive trip to Bermuda. No … I’ll give you TWO FREE tickets. It’s a 4-star resort for a whole week. You won’t have to spend a penny. The beach is amazing. The food? To die for.

Now, here’s the catch: You have to be ready to leave tomorrow morning at 6 AM.

Wait?

What?

You have so much on your busy schedule for this next week. How could you POSSIBLY leave that all behind?

But you want to go. It’s Bermuuuuuuuuda!

So you get started. You start PLOWING through your work. And I mean … plowing. You go into BEAST mode. You work and work … call and call … edit and edit … write and write … until suddenly, you’ve gotten all that week’s work done. You’re exhausted. But that’s ok … tomorrow you’re leaving for Bermuda!

As you lie on the sunny, warm beach with a smile on your face and colorful drink in your hand, you forget about how hard you worked that one day. It was hard. But it was WORTH it.

Now … imagine for just a moment that you spent most days in BEAST mode. What would you get accomplished? Probably so much, that before you know it, you’d be able to afford that trip to Bermuda.

“I am thankful to all those who said NO. Because of them I did it myself.”

When I read those words this morning, they immediately made me think of photography forums. Forums can be so amazing. There are so many creatives out that who are incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. They share because they honestly want others to succeed and because, in return, they receive helpful knowledge from their peers. And THAT is awesome.

Lately, though, I’ve started to notice that there is an overwhelming sea of sameness out there … particularly among those who frequent really popular forums. As I scroll down the posts from certain groups in my Facebook page, people’s work is — frankly — all blending together. And people are posting questions like: how do I get my web site to look like this? What were the actions used to create this? What lens should I use to shoot this?

In part, I think this is because it’s human nature to want to emulate something we’re drawn to.

There’s nothing wrong with that …

… EXCEPT this: If your work, web site, branding, etc. looks like everyone else’s … what’s going to help you to stand out? Why would someone book you and not one of the other many, many, many photographers out there?

This is YOUR business. It’s important to find the balance between learning from others — and thus walking the path they’ve already forged (so much easier!) — and blindly following every little nuance of others’ businesses and style.

This is YOUR business.

Every day is a chance to learn something new. Take it. Don’t look for how someone else did it. Do it YOUR way.

I’ll be the very first to admit that running a business is hard. And I feel like it may be even harder for creatives. After all, you start off loving your art, not necessarily the idea of running a business.

But then you think …

“Wow! Won’t it be great to earn an income doing what I love?!”

And of course … it is!

But no matter what business you’re in … whether it’s photography, soap making, or calligraphy … a business is still a business and as the owner (and artist), it’s possible you’ll hit spots where you’re actually doing more business than creating. And that’s when it can be tough.

It’s for this reason that I write the “dear female photographer” posts. I write them for myself … to keep myself motivated. And then I share them because I’d love for other to be encouraged, too. So I decided to start a completely separate instagram feed where I’ll share positivity for photographers. If you’re a photographer, creative, or just a person who enjoys positivity, come on over and join us! We’ll encourage each other.

You know her. And she gets on your very last nerve. No matter how many good things are going on in her life at any given time, you know that she’ll spend the bulk of your next interlude whining and complaining about things. And by “things”, I mean … EVERYTHING.

She’ll say things like …

“Why does photographer X have sooooo many clients? Her work is out of focus half of the time and she makes people look 20 pounds heavier than they are!”

“It’s soooo hard to network. No one eeeeeever really listens and I end up wasting my time.”

“Coming up with ideas for my blog posts every single week is sooooo exhausting! I’m exhausted. This isn’t worth it.“

“There are waaaaaay too many photographers in this industry. Way too many. It’s a dying industry and we should all get new jobs.”

Now, truth be told … some might argue that there is nothing wrong with any of the above statements. In fact, most of them could be called truths.

Some people whose work is out of focus do have a lot of clients (and it can cause you to scratch your head). (Hahah, side note: For my very first wedding nine years ago, I confessed to the bride and groom that I was petrified and that they may end up with blurry images. They laughed and said, “We look best blurry.” So hey, maybe blurry photography should be a new trend ; ))

It is HARD to constantly network … especially when sometimes you do come up empty handed.

And yes. Oh yes. Blogging endlessly can be exhausting.

Are the days of photographers running lucrative businesses truly coming to an end? Maybe. It all depends on who you ask ; )

But it’s not what you say … it’s how you say it. And it’s how you let it make you feel. We all want to whine a little sometimes. But whining is a lot like wining. Some wine with your dinner from time to time is just fine. But if your day is nothing but wine, wine, wine … you’ve got a problem.

So … be careful. Pay attention to your words. Tune into your emotions. And if there’s too much whine time going on, a change is needed.

You can’t afford to whine all the time. Here’s why.

1. It affects your creative energy. All that time and effort needed to be negative could be put to SUCH better use.2. It repels people from you. No one likes a negative Nelly!3. It physically changes your brain. Just like positive thinking can literally program your brain for happiness and increased productivity, negativity can cause you to feel stressed, unhappy, and tired.

Pay attention to your thoughts and words, and nip any negativity right in the bud. You don’t need it in your life.

ABOUT ME

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I take pictures for a living
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I hang out on my photography blog a whole lot
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I love Pinterest
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Kate Callahan Photography onFacebook
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